Does governor only value American children?

Dear Governor Martinez, I have been asked why, despite being a Democrat, you have always carried my support, and my response has been, “Because Susana fights for children.” In 2002, I watched you bring justice to the people responsible for the horrific death of baby Brianna Lopez.

So why now, after a career marked by such accomplishments as the first female governor of New Mexico, do you choose to be on the side of history remembered for crimes committed against children?

While attending NMSU, I was abducted from a grocery store parking lot, driven 10 miles north of town where I was sexually assaulted and left for dead. You represented me, Governor Martinez, and I have spent the last 15 years defending you because of the standard you set for victims justice. Your lack of response to the humanitarian crisis at our southern borders however, has forced me to rethink this position.

I can take your complacency to mean only one of two things: either you value the life of an American child more than any other; or that as D.A., you leveraged your reputation as victims advocate to cherry pick cases such as mine and Katie Sepich to satisfy your own political appetite.

My attacker was a white, U.S.-born citizen who held a gun to me as I washed his DNA off of myself in the Rio Grande. The same river that these children and their families are crossing every day seeking the refuge you currently denied them. So please, let’s not pretend we will suddenly be safe if we wall off our borders and refuse asylum seekers. I urge you Governor Martinez, to uphold your reputation as a passionate victims advocate and immediately reconnect these children with their families.

Sarah Ismond Owensby

Las Cruces

Trump’s actions are cause for criticism

John Sellinger noted in his letter to the editor that he is tired of the criticism of President Trump. He says Trump has done more than President Obama. That may be so, but is what he has done good for the country as a whole?

It appears that Trump has set off a trade war that will cause harm to the economy. He is also a serial liar who seems to have at best a tenuous grasp of the truth, to say nothing of reality. As an example of this, just this morning he denied encouraging the House to vote for an immigration bill, when in fact his tweet the day before the vote encouraged the House to vote for the bill. The criticism of Trump is well merited and caused by his own erratic actions.